France - Art Deco

Art Deco in its purest form - a wall bracket by Michel Zadounaisky dated 1930.
© Christies London, Important 20th Century Decorative Arts,
16th May 01'

While functionalism was the dictate of the hour in some countries, France enjoyed the luxury intoxication of an elitist artistic sense during the Art Deco period. Artists such as Emile-Jaques Ruhlmann, Maurice Dufrène and Eileen Gray began to work together on projects.

The large Paris stores, which had had their own art and interior decoration studios since the beginning of the 1920s (Primavera, Studio Louvre), had brought about this co-operation between the artists.

Parallel to this development, a counter current formed around Le Corbusier (Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand), devoted to austere functionalism; traditionalists criticised that they were inspired by "laboratories and factories".